Wedding Planning 101

Wedding Planning can be a difficult task. Even though most people know the basics of planning a wedding it can be very overwhelming, especially in the beginning. How do you deal with everything and get the planning done? Simple. Take a deep breath, relax and start at the beginning.

Announce The Engagement.
Announcing your engagement is pretty basic, once you get engaged it is time to tell everyone you know! This can be a pretty fun part of your engagement, announcing your future commitment and showing off your ring to all your friends and family. There are many ways you can announce your engagement. You can send out engagement announcements, have an engagement party or even use more modern forms of communication like telling the world of your upcoming nuptials on social networking sites.

Set The Date.
Being engaged is great, but there are differences between saying you are getting married, you are getting married next spring or you are getting married on May 18, 2011. Having a date makes it feel less abstract and more real. Setting the date of your wedding is one of the most important decisions to make in the beginning of the engagement. So how do you choose your date? There are many ways. Sometimes people already know when they want to get married, they have the date picked out based on a holiday wedding, a tradition, or a date that means something special to the couple.

However, if you do not know that date you are getting married and there are no special dates or holidays that you want to get married on it is time to decide when you do want to get married. Narrow down your choices. Decide on the time of the year, the season or the month and go from there. Once you narrowed it down to a year and season or month look at that timeframe and eliminate any dates you want to avoid. These would include holidays you don't want to be married on, birthdays and anniversaries of potential guests as well as any days that bring negative feelings to you, your fiancé or your families.

Determine Your Budget.
Once you announced your engagement and set the date you need to determine how much money you have for the rest of the wedding. This may be one of the least pleasant things you need to do while planning your wedding but it is pertinent to understand how much money you have to spend so you can plan the perfect wedding with the least amount of snags as possible.

Choose Your Ceremony Site and Your Reception Site
The ceremony site is important. This is where you walk down the aisle and get married to your fiancé in front of all your family and friends. There are many choices of places to say I do. You can get married in a church, an outdoor garden or another outside location, a restaurant, a hotel or a private home. What you choose will affect the feel of your wedding. Each possible ceremony site would affect your wedding. When choosing where you will have your ceremony think about what kind of wedding you want if you want something classic, romantic, modern or something else entirely. Think about how you want the place to be decorated and if what you have in mind could be easily accomplished in each possible place.

Your reception is pretty much the same. You want the reception location to add to the feeling and theme of your wedding. Some ceremony locations can double as reception locations such as hotels and restaurants, where as others such as churches and other places of worship are usually only for the ceremony.

Planning your wedding may seem daunting at first, but once you become organized and start thinking about what you have to do it really isn't that hard. Just remember the basics. Keep the planning simple, focus on what needs to be done but try not to overstress and get organized. Make lists, check them off. Read and research online and off about weddings, wedding planning and talk to whoever you can about their own weddings and experiences.